


You Don't Have To Love Me Back

by Lost_Stories



Series: Takarazuka Prompt Series [13]
Category: Romeo & Juliet - Takarazuka Revue, Romeo And Juliet - Shakespeare, Romeo et Juliette - Presgurvic, Takarazuka Revue Musicals
Genre: Angst, I love them I'm sorry I made them sad, Introspection, M/M, Mercutio POV, Sort Of, Unrequited Love, but he wishes he did, just hurt no comfort, mercutio does not know how to love, mercutio is a sad sad idiot baby boy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-05
Updated: 2020-08-05
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:53:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25733869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lost_Stories/pseuds/Lost_Stories
Summary: Benvolio loves Mercutio, and tells him
Relationships: Mercutio/Benvolio Montague
Series: Takarazuka Prompt Series [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1753291
Comments: 6
Kudos: 25





	You Don't Have To Love Me Back

**Author's Note:**

> Bonus fic for the Guess The Author Takarazuka prompt "have you ever loved anyone"

Mercutio is still busy catching his breath, splayed out comfortably on his large bed covered only by a thin sheet with Benvolio plastered to his side, when he hears Benvolio’s whispered question.

“Mercutio, have you ever loved anyone?”

He goes still, heart skipping a beat as the afterglow fades and tension fills the air around them. _Has he ever loved anyone._ He knows what Benvolio is asking, really. He knows well what his friend, his comrade, his other, wants the answer to be. He also knows it’s not an answer he can give.

The silence stretches between them, like a bowstring being pulled taut, the words lingering on his lips a destructive arrow should he choose to speak. He swallows, wets his lips, turns on his side to face Benvolio’s soft eyes, flinches at the silent plea he reads in them.

“Of course I have,” he answers, keeping his tone light, flippant, “You and Romeo are my best friends in the entire world!”

He watches the blow land. Benvolio’s emotions are betrayed only by his eyes, as his expression remains calm as though carved in stone. Controlled, as always. He knows Benvolio heard the answer he could not bear to voice. He wishes, not for the first time, that he knew how to feel what Benvolio is asking of him. That someone had taught him how to face and accept that emotion. But that isn’t the world he’s been born into. Love, romantic love, is not something he knows how to feel. Knows what to do with. Even wants to face.

Simply put, it would be too hard. Too hard to feel that kind of love and then _lose_ the person he felt it for. His heart is jaded from loss and neglect, armoured in the same way he protects his body. He wishes, often as not, that he _could_. That he were more like Romeo. Kind, gentle Romeo with a heart so open it gets broken every week. Perhaps God (that cruel, heartless God he despises to begin with) gave all of the love to Romeo, and left none for him. He opens his mouth, the lie Benvolio wants to hear ready on his lips. He cannot stand the sadness shadowing his partner’s expression, can accept even less that he is the one that is causing it, but Benvolio lays a gentle finger against his lips, smiles that knowing smile.

“I know, ‘Cutio,” he whispers. “It’s alright.”

Suddenly, Mercutio doesn’t know how to face him. Face the kindness and understanding in Benvolio’s mournful eyes, the very emotion he cannot allow himself to feel shining so brightly from his face. He lowers his eyes, stares at Benvolio’s mouth, and does the one thing he knows he is good at. He hauls him in for a kiss until both of them don’t have the breath left to say a word.

Later, when they’re sweaty, exhausted, and curled close together like a pile of cats, Benvolio presses a kiss over his heart and whispers:

“I love you, Mercutio. You don’t have to love me back.”

Benvolio falls asleep, and Mercutio cries. 

~


End file.
